


The Torchwood Divergence

by Shanejayell



Category: Doctor Who & Related Fandoms
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-06-22
Updated: 2014-04-09
Packaged: 2017-12-15 19:44:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 3,970
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/853342
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shanejayell/pseuds/Shanejayell
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Short pieces on Doctor Who and Torchwood</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I have only seen up to Season 2 of new Doctor Who. This is based off my incomplete knowledge, reading wikipedia and some speculation on my part. I'm also a femslash writer, so that may slip in too.

Doctor Who: The Torchwood Divergence

The President of the United States braced himself. The last few days had changed things.. quite possibly changed them forever. The Sycorax had come to Earth, a race of aliens that attempted to take over, in part using a chunk of the planet's population as hostages. The Doctor, a mysterious alien whom they knew disturbingly little about, stopped the invasion and forced the Sycorax to flee.

Then Britain blew the Sycorax out of space. Somehow.

There were moments of pure hysteria in Washington, with Capitol Hill going ballistic. This simply wasn't possible! The UK couldn't have been hiding that kind of military advances. Eventually prodding the NSA, CIA and several alphabet soup agencies produced a name: Torchwood, and eventual digging found out what they did.

"Alien artifacts," the President shook his head grimly. He knew about them, of course, the planet had never had a lack of alien contact, though most of it was kept hush hush. Hell, the United Nations UNIT was formed for just such emergencies. Still, he hadn't anticipated someone weaponizing them... With a sigh he picked up the secure phone, and dialled.

"Harriet Jones, Prime Minister," the woman's voice replied crisply.

The President sighed, "Yes, I know who you are." Briskly he said, "Officially, I wish to state that the United States are shocked that the United Kingdom would misuse alien technology..."

"Oh, rubbish," Harriet replied briskly. "We both know about what really goes on in Skunk Works and how you use Area 51 as a distraction."

"Huh." The President remind himself that this woman was clearly better informed than he expected. "Can we expect your assistance in our attempts to control rogue nations?" he asked instead.

Somewhat more apologetic Harriet answered, "I'm afraid not. When Queen Victoria founded the Torchwood Institute, certain limitations were put in place regarding what it could do." Wryly she added, "Why do you think we no longer have a British Empire?"

They talked a while longer, then the President hung up. Clearly, they needed to step up their game. The UK could not be allowed to maintain supremacy in the use of this technology. But also quite clearly, the folks the US had doing this weren't living up to the job.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Diana Goddard was rich, powerful, and utterly bored with her life. She was head of GeoComTex, one of the most powerful companies on Earth, built on the back of salvaged or stolen alien technology. Her former employer Van Statten had built the company into a global empire, but his stupidity also unleashed a Dalek that slaughtered almost everyone in the facility. In the confusion Diana had leveraged her already great power in the company to take over, then dumped Van Statten.

This phone call from the President of the United States, however, sounded... rather interesting. "So, you wish for us to contract to acquire and weaponize alien technology for the US?" Diana noted thoughtfully.

"That is correct," he agreed.

"I thought Skunk Works was doing that for you?" Diana asked.

"Does EVERYONE know about that?" the president sighed.

"Pretty much," Diana smiled. Somewhat more seriously Diana continued, "I have to admit, I like the proposal. I expect, however, I'll need actual military support in doing this, and I want the option of non-military uses for the acquired technology."

"Which your company already does," he noted dryly.

"You'd have to prove that," Diana said dryly. "Well?"

"Agreed," he sighed reluctantly.

"Black Ops, I assume," Diana noted, "run it however you have to, as I'm certain we'll have possible opposition."

"Oh?" the President asked.

"I've got nothing confirmed," Diana cautioned, "but the Russians are throwing a lot of money into what I think is their alien hunting group. And we've had two attempts to breech our systems from China, so I suspect they've got a team too."

The President used a word you shouldn't use in polite company. "All right," he calmed down, "get to it. And we need results."

"Understood," Diana nodded. Hanging up she considered the situation, then called up her Information Technology expert from his office.

Adam Mitchell came in, the former UK resident wearing his usual hat. After fleeing the Utah Vault with the Doctor, he had ended up in the future, and got a cybernetic implant giving him mental access to the internet. Sadly, activating it opened a iris allowing a view into his BRAIN. Hence, the hat.

"Ma'am," Adam nodded respectfully. He had rather mixed feeling about her, honestly. On one hand she dragged him back into this life, but on the other she had saved him from being arrested by a British paramilitary team after his implant.

"Well," Diana said, "I think we know who those paramilitary types were who tried to arrest you back in England."

"Really?" Adam asked, surprised. After his escape he had tried to run down who went after him, but had no luck.

"Looks like England was doing something like our company," Diana noted, "through a organization called Torchwood."

Adam nodded thoughtfully, then his eyes narrowed a bit. "Why are you bringing this up now?" he asked.

Diana nodded approvingly. Clever boy. "I need you on a new project," she said, then explained what the US government wanted them to do.

"Isn't Skunk Works handling that?" Adam asked predictably.

"Does everybody know that?" Diana laughed.

"Well, the stealth bomber is TOTALLY a rip off of the Roswell ship. Everyone knows it," Adam shrugged slightly.

"Point," Diana conceded. She leaned forward, "You in?"

"Of course," Adam agreed promptly, "I don't have anywhere else to go, anyway." Somewhat more cautiously he added, "We'll need a field team. No way an I going out there on my own..."

Diana listened to him plot and hid a satisfied smile. Very careful uses of hints and implications had lead Adam to think he didn't dare go home or he'd be snatched. Not that it wasn't possible, of course, but she made him think he was a major target. Boys and their egos were so easy to manipulate.

"All right," Diana said, "I've got assurances we will get military and logistical support if needed. I need you to do the research and draw up a list of targets."

"Right," Adam moved to snap his fingers.

"Not in here!" Diana yelped. She did NOT want to see his brains, even under the hat.

"Right, sorry," Adam looked a bit sheepish as he headed to the office door.

A thought occurred to Diana and she added, "And while you're at it, look into other groups who might be searching for alien tech."

"Other than us and Torchwood?" Adam asked.

Diana nodded thoughtfully. As she said the President, she couldn't prove it, but her gut said it was damn likely. "I can't imagine China or Russia staying out of this game, especially after seeing what Torchwood did to the invading ship," she pointed out.

"You're right," Adam conceded, "maybe Japan, too. I'll get to it."

Watching him go, Diana considered how much of a asset the poor boy was. Of course, eventually he would figure out how he had been manipulated by her. Well, hopefully the mind wipe tech her former employer used would work on the boy. If not, well... less humane methods might need to be used.

Diana looked out the window and smiled to herself. It was going to be a great day...

To be continued?

Notes: Just a one shot thing inspired by the first episode of Doctor Who Season Two. The problem I sometimes have with Doctor Who is that they don't deal with the consequences of big events in the series. (Understandable, of course, considering the non-linear storytelling style.) But it occurred to me that the nations of the world would ABSOLUTELY have a cow over the existence of Torchwood and the UK having the kind of power to destroy a Sycorax space ship. Especially the US of A.

So, some thoughts. I used the survivors of Dalek from season one, as we have a sad lack of US characters. I may try to expand on that. As to the other alien hunters, if I continue this I expect there would be a Russian and Chinese group too. Possibly Japan, tho I expect it would be a corporation doing it rather than their government. How each group operates will vary, but BROADLY I could see any of the groups raiding a sovereign nation if they could get away with it. With plausible deniability in place, of course. And quite possibly more than one team chasing the prize.

Anyway, let me know if there's interest in a continuation.


	2. The Torchwood Briefing

The Torchwood Briefing

The documents went out to police stations across the United Kingdom, not long after Christmas. It was a fairly innocent looking folder, but the stylized 'T' insignia was new to the police, and the contents rather shocked the officers involved.

Billy Shipton looked at his chief in disbelief. "They're having us on, are they?" he asked.

"No, this is official," the older man shook his head. Honestly, looking through the papers he wasn't THAT surprised. He'd been a cop long enough to have heard about the odd things no one was supposed to talk about.

"Well, thanks for letting me look at it," Billy said just a bit dubiously.

The chief sighed. "Not looking forward to presenting this to the officers," he muttered.

Every shift change there was a briefing by the senior officer, usually updating officers on criminals that had been spotted, missing persons to look out for, and so on. Today, however, the sergeant looked rather dubious as he faced the cops.

"All right folks, we're wrapping up today with a briefing paper sent out by the Torchwood Institute," the sarge started.

"Who the hell is Torchwood?" one officer had to ask.

"You know that giant spaceship that hovered over London? They were the ones who shot it down," the sarge said flatly.

"Oh," the officer subsided.

He cleared his throat. "Torchwood is chartered by the crown to investigate and study paranormal phenomenon, as well as weaponize what they recover. They've put together a briefing for police on aliens that have appeared in the UK in the past."

"Aliens?" another officer said skeptically.

"Don't knock it," a third man noted, "I was there when the manikins came alive last Christmas and started shooting up the place."

"Anyway," the Sarge continued, "fire up the projector, we've got visible aids." He hit the projector switch, "This, gentlemen, is a Dalek."

"It looks like a pepperpot with a egg beater and a plunger for arms! " a officer hooted.

"Well, this is what the plunger can DO to someone," the Sarge clicked to change images. Someone made a choking sound in shock. "It can crush metal, bones and flesh, it turns out. And that egg beater is a death ray that doesn't even leave a corpse."

"Shit," a young bobby muttered.

"And this is a Cyberman," the Sarge clicked again, revealing a ominous silver humanoid. "That isn't just armor... apparently the species has deliberately combined themselves with machines."

"Well, I guess that makes sense," one officer noted dubiously.

"And they apparently want to share the pleasure," the Sarge continued, "apparently they will attempt to convert all other life forms."

"Oh marvellous," the man sighed.

The Sarge ran through a few other aliens, then took a breath. "Okay, boys, this is what it boils down to." He continued, "Almost all of these things are invulnerable to conventional weapons. Guns, rifles, whatever will NOT work."

"Military weapons?" one man asked quietly.

"UNIT had no luck, so I wouldn't hold your breath," the Sarge noted. "When confronted by one of these things, the best advice is to get yourself and the civilians clear. Do not engage." He stopped, looking puzzled.

"What?" a officer asked.

"Do not engage," the Sarge continued, "and hope the Doctor arrives? What does that mean?"

To be continued...

Notes: Sorry for the short update, I keep being called in early to work which cuts into writing time a bit. This was inspired by how often alien crap happens in Doctor Who yet the cops are ALWAYS taken by surprise. So, a official government briefing. I expect reports from UNIT were included too, which is why 'hope the Doctor arrives' is in there.

Next chapter will be another short piece on Donna Noble, as I HATE what was done to her.


	3. A Discussion of Time Travel

Doctor Who: A discussion on Time Travel

Kate Stewart shook the Doctor's hand, “Thank you for agreeing to give this lecture on time travel. I was actually surprised you agreed to give it, considering your feelings on the military.”

“Me too,” Clara agreed, the young woman having followed him in.

“Clara,” the Doctor gave her a look then addressed Kate. “Frankly, I think it would be irresponsible not to, at this point,” he said.

“Oh?” Kate asked curiously.

“You're not THAT far, technology wise, from where other alien cultures have developed time travel,” the Doctor noted, “and with Torchwood recovering alien tech, I expect you'll get there sooner rather than later.”

Both looked displeased at the mention of Torchwood. The organization had been a enemy of the Doctor's at first, and while they had changed their ways neither were exactly fans of the group. 

“All right,” Kate addressed the group of officers as she entered, “settle down We'll be recording this for any officers who couldn't attend.”

“All right, everyone I am the Doctor, and I'll be giving a lecture on time travel and why your history isn't being changed all the time,” he said briskly.

“So, why isn't time changed all the time?” Clara asked obediently.

“Very good question!” the Doctor laughed. He took a stylus and drew on the monitor screen behind him, “Consider time as a river, for a example.” He paused, “Which is a awful anology. Time is not at all like a river. But it'll do to illustrate my point.”

He drew the river, then added two lines far apart. “Consider this now,” he labeled one line, “and this the past. Now, if you dropped a pebble in a river this far apart, would the waves reach the other line.”

“No,” Kate noted thoughtfully.

“No,” the Doctor nodded. “In esence, small changes in history, unlike what your Ray Bradbury thought, will not change history in a noticable way.” He drew a series of circles in the river, “There are also these Fixed Points in time to be considered. These events can not be changed, further limiting ripple changes from time travel.”

“But what if a time traveler DOES change a important event?” Clara asked,

“Generally speaking that doesn't happen, USUALLY because of the high numbers of time travellers around such events,” the Doctor shrugged. “If someone changes something, another will usually put it back.”

There was a haunted look in the Doctor's eyes as he said it. Kate rather suspected he'd had to, at least once, do something fairly grim to fix history. 

“And of course there are paradoxes to consider” he added. The Doctor shrugged, “Can't kill Hitler without removing your reason to travel in the first place.” He smirked, “Though it HAS been tried.”

From his smirk, Kate wondered how that turned out, and resolved to try to get the story out of him eventually....

To be continued...

Notes: My theory of Doctor Who time travel, more or less. Note the Doctor does not bring up the small changes of history he mentions to Amy at one point. Nothing UNIT can do about those anyway. 

This is sort of a AU where the Doctor keeps working with UNIT, set sometime after Power of Three and his meeting up with Clara.


	4. After the Big Bang

After the Big Bang: A Conversation.

It was a day after the wedding of Rory and Amy Pond. And what a night THAT had been! Drinking, talking, seeing River again, watching the Doctor attempt to dance... it had been glorious. But all parties run down, and in the morning light they found themselves sitting at the breakfast table. 

“So... you rebooted history when you drove the Pandorica into the exploding Tardis,” Rory said. He paused, “I can't believe I said that.”

“You'll get used to it again,” the Doctor noted.

Amy ignored that. “So, how much has history changed? Or has it at all?” she asked.

“Well, as I was in the Pandorica at the time, it used my memories plus the data it had absorbed as a template,” the Doctor answered thoughtfully, “so, largely, history has stayed the same.”

“Largely?” Rory picked up on that.

The Doctor nodded, conceding the point. “You and Amy don't remember the Dalek invasions, for instance,” he pointed out, “I think because of the tear in time. They still happened because I experienced it, but most people won't remember too.”

“You don't sound happy about that,” Amy noted.

The Doctor shrugged uncomfortably. “Someone I respected a great deal died in that invasion. It galls me a bit that she won't be remembered,” he explain. “Especially after what I did to her.”

“Oh?” both Rory and Amy looked at him expectantly.

The Doctor considered evading, but decided it would be better to be honest. “You remember Harriet Jones? Prime Minister before Saxon got in?” he asked.

“Yeah,” Rory agreed.

“She should have stayed in power, might even have led the UK into a golden age,” the Doctor sighed, “but she did something that pissed me off. We disagreed, and I said something that ended up undermining her and leading to her leaving government.”

“And she ended up sacrificing herself, leaving you feeling guilty,” Amy noted perceptively. “Did you think you were doing the right thing at the time?” she wondered.

“I don't know,” the Doctor sighed, “that's the thing. You look back at your decisions and no longer even remember what you were thinking....” 

“So remember what you did and move on,” Rory said wisely, “it's all you can do.”

Changing the subject Amy smiled at the Doctor, “So, where are you taking Rory and I on our honeymoon?”

To be continued....

Notes: Kinda addressing time travel a bit. Tho honestly I'd like to write a essay on time travel in Who, when I get the chance. Also addressing Harriet, since it occurred to me her sacrifice was probably deleted in the reboot.


	5. The Return of Donna Noble

The Torchwood Divergence  
The Return of Donna Noble

Martha Jones, formerly of UNIT and a recent hire at Torchwood, checked her phone and blinked in surprise at the unfamiliar number. “Hello?” she asked.

“Martha, it's Donna Noble. Could I see you?” the hurried voice asked.

THAT made Martha do a double take. She knew Donna, of course. They had met several times when Donna had been travelling with the Doctor. But Donna shouldn't have known HER, considering that her memories were wiped....

“This is Martha, but I don't think we've met,” she lied glibly.

Donna sighed dramatically. “You are Martha Jones, you worked for UNIT, you travelled time and space with the Doctor, you were Shakespeare's inspiration for his Dark Lady and had a massive crush on the Doctor.” She paused, “Need I go on?”

“No,” Martha admitted. “Where and when?”

They arranged to meet, then Martha hung up. After a moment's thought, she dialled another phone number on her cellphone, had a short conversation, then headed out. 

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

The cafe they were meeting at was not that far from the Cardiff headquarters of Torchwood-3, which Martha suspected was not a coincidence. She scanned the room, seeing tables packed with hip looking teens and adults trying to be cool. And over in the corner, a familiar looking redhead arguing with a waiter.

“I said I wanted tea, not bilgewater,” Donna gestured, “I wouldn't serve this to my worst enemy.”

“Of which you probably have many,” the man sassed back. 

“Oi!” Donna grinned, “Look at the mouth on you, boy.”

He smiled, “I'll go put some fresh tea on, ma'am. Be right back.”

“Thanks,” Donna waved him off then smiled as she saw Martha. “Hey, get over here!” she waved her towards her. 

Martha headed over, noting some thing. When Donna had absorbed some of the Doctor's regeneration energy she had become livelier, more expressive, and had a imposible amount of knowledge. That seemed to be there, now, but... not as much. 

“Good to see you,” Martha nodded. She hesitated then bluntly asked, “Are you all right? The Doctor said....”

“That if I regained my memories I'd burn out and die,” Donna finished. She smirked, “Turns out the Doctor doesn't know everything.”

The young man returned with tea, and they both got cups and dosed them with their usual additives. Taking a sip of her drink Martha asked, “So what happened, exactly?”

Donna took a drink of her own tea. “Well, after the regeneration, I had a lot of the Doctor's knowledge crammed in my head, including what would probably happen to me,” Donna noted.

“The burning out thing,” Martha nodded.

“So I... kind of hacked what the Doctor did to me,” Donna admitted. “He thought he erased my memories, but instead they were just suppressed. At the same time, I set it up so that my brain could rewire itself to handle the load.”

“So after a few weeks..,” Martha murmured, fascinated.

“It finished and I got my memories back,” Donna smirked proudly. A bit more sheepishly she added, “I DO have to be careful going full-on Time Lord, because that won;t be good for me. But other than that, I'm fine.”

Drinking a bit more tea, Martha considered what she said. “What are you going to do now?” she wondered.

“Dunno yet,” Donna admitted. “I want to do something useful, but I'm also gonna have to keep my head down.”

“Huh?” Martha blinked.

“River Song and others from the future didn't know I came back,” Donna shrugged. “Better keep it that way, if only to preserve the timeline.”

They talked for awhile, Martha enjoying the zing of the other woman's sharp wit. Finally she asked, “Are you going to tell the Doctor?”

“Don't think so,” Donna shook her head firmly, “I know Time Lords. Hell, I was one for a few hours. He'll feel obligated to keep an eye on me and make sure nothing happens. No, I think I'll manage on my own.”

“I guess so,” Martha agreed.

Martha headed out of the cafe then out to the street, walking until she found the alley. She had phoned someone else after Donna called, and they should be arriving just about... now.

There was a repeated whooshing noise and the policebox materialized, fading in and out a moment before becoming solid. The door jerked open and the Doctor emerged, a slightly more gangly figure than the one Martha remembered. 

“How is she?” the Doctor asked. He smiled wryly, “Well, how are YOU too, Martha. It's good to see you again.”

“We're both fine,” Martha reassured him, then she proceeded to tell him about her conversation with Donna. 

“She's right, probably,” the Doctor admitted ruefully. “The rewiring of the synapses... I should have thought of that! She's brighter than me, in some ways.”

“So are you going to...?” Martha gestured vaguely.

“I'll leave her alone,” the Doctor said, shrugging. “If something goes VERY wrong, I trust she'll call me. Or you or Jack, since I expect he'll be keeping a eye out too....”

To be continued....

Notes: Yes, Donna Noble rebooted her own brain. It was that or have her get hit by a car, die and regenerate, regaining her full memories.


End file.
